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Don’t
look now, but it looks like up to P5 billion in funds
intended to rehabilitate typhoon-ravaged areas in the
Bicol region may have been dissipated in substandard
projects or diverted to other purposes, including
vote-buying in the
May 14, 2007, elections.
As
reported by
BusinessMirror Legazpi City
correspondent Manly Ugalde during the meeting of the
Regional Peace and Order Council in Masbate last
December, President Arroyo chastised regional officials
of the Department of Education (DepEd) for the failed
rehabilitation of typhoon-damaged school buildings.
In the
wake of reports that funds released for the Calamity
Assistance Rehabilitation Efforts (Care) during the
election campaign last year may have been
misappropriated for vote-buying, the President created
the Bicol Care Commission, with Undersecretary Anthony
Golez as executive director, to strictly monitor the
rehabilitation funds.
While
the Bicol Care Commission has reported almost 85-percent
completion of the rehabilitation projects, it is feared
that some P160 million worth of projects in the 3rd
district of Albay may have gone to waste due to floods
caused by unrelenting rains.
As a
case in point, the Sangguniang Bayan of Oas town passed
a resolution seeking the suspension of the
kilometer-long dike project along the Kabilogan River,
affecting the town proper. Oas Mayor Gregorio Ricarte
claims that even minor floods caused the dike and other
projects to give way, and he blamed the Department of
Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the project
contractor for the mess. DPWH district engineer Efren
Manalo insists the rehabilitation projects would be
completed “according to standards,” but if the sorry
state of the Kabilogan dike project is any indication,
other projects may well be in jeopardy.
According to DPWH Regional Director Orlando Roces, P1.2
billion of the P5-billion Care allocations for Bicol has
been allocated for the repair of roads, bridges and
dikes. The DepEd got P2 billion for the repair of school
buildings.
The
Bicol region, which lies directly in the path of
typhoons spawned in the Pacific Ocean, remains one of
the most economically depressed areas in the country.
But it seems that public officials there with
less-than-noble intentions have poverty eradication as
the least of their priorities, raising serious doubts
about their capability to deliver Bicol from the grip of
deprivation and despair.
Farm
sector surges forward
The good
news is that the farm sector beat the odds last year and
posted a strong performance despite the dry spell that
had been forecast to pull down growth rates for
agriculture and fisheries.
Agriculture posted growth of 4.3 percent in the nine
months to September, while the fisheries subsector
expanded by 7.92 percent, with production volume worth
P134.6 billion. Palay output reached 9.87 million metric
tons (MT), while corn harvests totalled 5.29 million MT
for the third quarter. Livestock production increased by
2.06 percent during the third-quarter period, grossing
P117.9 billion at current prices, or 4.39 percent more
than the 2006 record.
What the
Department of Agriculture (DA) did to counter the dry
spell was to put in place a quick-turnaround (QTA)
program mainly in Mindanao, which involved a third
planting season in palay-producing areas unaffected by
the aberrant weather. This managed to raise an
additional 350,000 MT of palay and 200,000 MT more of
corn. At the same time, the agriculture department
implemented emergency measures in Luzon’s affected
farms, which included providing aid to farmers in the
form of small water-impounding facilities, seed
subsidies, shallow tube wells, cloud-seeding operations
and repair of irrigation facilities.
On the
whole, agriculture’s better-than-expected performance in
2007 is credited to increased investments in rural
infrastructure, postharvest facilities and seed
technology, as well as timely intervention measures by
the DA aimed at easing the tight credit squeeze in the
countryside and opening more markets here and abroad for
local produce.
But
despite these gains, the DA wants to sustain the farm
sector’s growth momentum and ensure food security by
coping head-on with several major challenges. One is
climate change, which has dampened agricultural
production and raised food prices throughout the world.
Another is the increased food demand by rapidly growing
economies such as China and India. And still another is
the brewing conflict in certain countries between the
production of crops for food and for biofuels
feedstock.
These
are formidable challenges, to be sure, but Agriculture
Secretary Arthur Yap seems to be unfazed, with clear
plans to mobilize private-sector stakeholders as well as
local government units. The goal is not only to raise
farm-sector productivity even higher this year and the
next, but also to make the Philippines self-sufficient
in most homegrown crops over the next 10 years. The
question is: Can the DA hack it? |
